Sir Eric Riches

1897 - 1987

Described a popular new cystoscope and attachments

Eric William Riches (1897 - 1987) was born at Alford, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Christ's Hospital and trained at the Middlesex Hospital. During the First World War, he served with the 10th Lincoln and then with the 11th Suffolk Infantry regiments. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1917.

He was appointed to the surgical staff of the Middlesex Hospital in 1930, specialising in urology. He also worked at the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth; St Andrew's Hospital Dollis Hill; and the Royal Masonic Hospital. He later became Consultant Urologist to the army and to the Ministry of Pensions Spinal Injuries Centre.

In 1955 he described a new cystoscope in an attempt to standardise equipment in the UK. The Riches cystoscope and its various attachments was a popular instrument until the development of the Hopkins lens system.

Eric Riches was a Hunterian professor at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1938 and, in 1942, was both Hunterian professor and Jacksonian prizeman. He was knighted in 1958.

He died at the age of 90 on 8 November 1987.

Papers and articles

Benjamin Brodie on Strictures and Stones (1922)
A lecture by Eric Riches to the RSM in 1958Click here to read the article

On Carcinoma of The Kidney
A paper by Eric Riches from 1963Click herefor further information

Lithotomy and Lithotrity
A paper by Eric Riches from 1967Click herefor further information

Samuel Pepys and His Stones
A paper by Eric Riches from 1977Click herefor further information

ObituariesClick here to read his obituary in the British Medical Journal (1987)Click here to read his obituary in the British Journal of Urology (1988)